I have a possible job opportunity in Kelso, WA that I want to jump on. Problem is it is in Kelso, which I have 0 interest in, and I live in Portland. It would be an hour commute and I'm unsure if an hour commute is doable long term. Has anyone here had experience with long commutes? What is too long?

I commute from battle ground, wa to Tigard daily. With a side trip on the way home to SE Portland (82&Foster) for my gym. Close to 100 miles per day total.

Commuted from basically brush prairie, wa to intel Hillsboro for 10+ years.

It's doable. I will say that it sucks to give up basically 2 to 3 hours of every day to sitting on the road on varying degrees of traffic, so add that into the equation that you use to determine if its worth it.

RolandDeschain wrote:I work 0.9 miles from where I live. It's pretty rough some days, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Almost no time to listen to sports radio on the way to work. Ouch. If I were you I would ask for a relocation farther from home

Takes me 5 minutes summer and 7 minutes winter to get to work. I would complain about no sports radio on the way to work, but I am pretty sure that even 7 minutes of Cowherd is too much for me most days

As for commuting. I've considered moving out of the city here and out where I could get a large piece of property to live on instead of these cramped subdivision homes they have here in the city, but I just am not ready for an hour each way during the winter. Take away snow and Ice (with stupid drivers) and I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I've had little experience commuting daily to work but lots of experience making the trip from Kelso to Vancouver or Portland. Actually once you get out of Portland and on either 405,(which I'd recommend) and back on I-5 its not a bad drive and pretty fast.

Imagine having to leave Spokane and be in Great Falls, Mt. monday morning at 8am their time. That's over 3 mountain passes including going by the coldest spot ever in the continental US. That's long commuting. lol

That means leaving about 11pm Sunday night. I was raising a family in those days and spent as much time as possible at home. I tried the leaving sunday day and staying overnight. But since I was going to be out of town until at least thursday it seemed easier. Tired bastard that night tho.

i used to work in Portland, and drive from Longview. i got used to it. wasnt my favorite thing ever, but it wasnt all that bad. youll be going the opposite of the rush so it should actually be pretty nice.

muxpux wrote:i used to work in Portland, and drive from Longview. i got used to it. wasnt my favorite thing ever, but it wasnt all that bad. youll be going the opposite of the rush so it should actually be pretty nice.

i work 45 miles outside of town, once you get your system down it's not bad at all.. gives me time to think about what i need to get done that day, check out mike and mike in the morning, or a little Bob and Tom show.. not bad at all.. my monthly gas expenses are ridiculous, but i drive a 5.7 dodge durango , so that's what i get for being stupid...

Traffic is the killer for me, I have zero tolerance for it anymore. I check KATU traffic before I leave work and if it looks bad I just make a pitstop at the local Buffalo Wild Wings, have a brew and some food and watch whatever game is on, I have a traffic ap for my my phone and I just kick back until its over then continue on down the road.

I used to commute from Yacolt, Wa to the backside of Portland Airport for many years and while on paper it was 36 miles it would take me an hour each way. Due to my work shift (graveyard) I never had problems with traffic so it was always a nice drive and give you a chance to unwind.

You should be ok as it seems like someone already mentioned you will be going the opposite way. If you can tolerate it I would buy a little commuter car, I bought an old crx for 500$ that I drove to well over 250,000 miles getting 40+ mpg, when I moved closer to town I sold it to some punk kid for 1500$

I have a 7 mile 12 minute commute that is absolutely brutal. However out of 16 all but one other guy live at least 30 minutes or more. Four live over an hour away. They do it and have been for at least a decade each.

I think its always good to have a buffer time from between home and work. However, unless this position is a real in road to something dramatically better, I'd be cautious about choosing to spend a fair chunk of your waking hours in a car. You spend less time with the people you enjoy, because there is less time in the evening, so you try and stretch that by staying up later, end up exhausted.

RolandDeschain wrote:I work 0.9 miles from where I live. It's pretty rough some days, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Dude, it is not .9 miles from your apartment over the garage down to your Mom's basement.

@OP You just have to try it for awhile and see how it works for you. I did Battle Ground -> Lake Oswego (35 miles each way) for 4 years. You can either sit in traffic or work out ways around it. I'm doing Battle Ground -> Lloyd Center District now which is about 20 each way. You can usually find some good routes that either avoid the traffic or at least feel like they avoid the traffic.

sturg78 wrote:I have a possible job opportunity in Kelso, WA that I want to jump on. Problem is it is in Kelso, which I have 0 interest in, and I live in Portland. It would be an hour commute and I'm unsure if an hour commute is doable long term. Has anyone here had experience with long commutes? What is too long?

An hour isn't too bad. Sounds weird saying that, but I think for a lot of folks living outside Seattle, having to commute into downtown Seattle (or eastside), an hour is pretty common.

I live 19 miles from my work in downtown Seattle, takes me any where from 50-75 minutes.

Catch up on some audio books, new music, sports radio. Won't be bad.

Long you live and high you fly, and smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry, and all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be

How is a 1-hour commute each way not too bad? You're talking about 12% or so of your average waking life. That's a huge chunk. People need to stop living so far from their jobs, it's clowns that have long commutes that clog the freeways in the first place!

RolandDeschain wrote:How is a 1-hour commute each way not too bad? You're talking about 12% or so of your average waking life. That's a huge chunk. People need to stop living so far from their jobs, it's clowns that have long commutes that clog the freeways in the first place!

#LongCommuterHater

He's right you know. You should get the hell rid of your car and hitchhike.

Or take a minimum wage job and collect foodstamps so you can stay home more.

RolandDeschain wrote:How is a 1-hour commute each way not too bad? You're talking about 12% or so of your average waking life. That's a huge chunk. People need to stop living so far from their jobs, it's clowns that have long commutes that clog the freeways in the first place!

#LongCommuterHater

Maybe these big companies will start putting office space in the burbs of Kent, Federal Way and Auburn? I'll ask if they could do that instead of renting space in the high rises in downtown Seattle.

Or maybe they'll start building affordable houses, with yards, schools, etc so I have room to raise my family in downtown Seattle so I can walk to work. That would be awesome.

Or maybe I'll go back in time 20 years where I was young and single and I could get an apartment downtown so I could walk to work.

Or maybe my work will give me a huge monster raise so I can buy one of these $6,000,000 dollar condos by my work. That would be cool. Oh wait, no schools in downtown Seattle.

Or maybe my last job(which was closer, 25min commute) wouldn't have outsourced my entire IT department to Bangladore...

Saying people should live closer to work would be great, then reality sets in.

Long you live and high you fly, and smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry, and all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be

RolandDeschain wrote:How is a 1-hour commute each way not too bad? You're talking about 12% or so of your average waking life. That's a huge chunk. People need to stop living so far from their jobs, it's clowns that have long commutes that clog the freeways in the first place!

#LongCommuterHater

I have a 45 minute each way and I consider it my decompress time. My commute is worth it though, I could not afford the house and land I have in the town where I work so sometimes you have to make that trade off. Not all of us can or want to live in the city where we can have that short commute. Buy a car with good gas mileage or a motorcycle.

My point is, I resent having massive freeway traffic from people who refuse to live moderately close to where they work.

Imagine if you couldn't run water more than a trickle during peak times in your home because people 20 mile away were siphoning it off a couple hours twice per day? Just sayin'.

I know this will bother some people around here, haha.

twisted_steel2 wrote:Saying people should live closer to work would be great, then reality sets in.

Anybody can do it if they WANT to do it. Condo instead of house, etc. You don't want to do it, that's fine; but claiming it's impossible is ridiculous. Of course you can buy a bigger/better place living in a more rural/less populated area. However, it's annoying to people like me, who have moved 3 times in the past decade but every single time have made sure they stay close to their job for the nice, easy commute. I could have a better place living a good deal farther away, but I don't.

Last edited by RolandDeschain on Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm with Roland. There are trade offs but for me I add those two daily hours and add that to my dollars per hour. Gas, car repairs, the added time because an hour in Friday traffic is 1.5. There's an accident this week four hour commute. Another thing about people I work with that commute they all show up at least a half hour or more early because they have to compensate for traffic, accidents, break downs etc and not be late. That's more time they aren't being paid.

RolandDeschain wrote:How is a 1-hour commute each way not too bad? You're talking about 12% or so of your average waking life. That's a huge chunk. People need to stop living so far from their jobs, it's clowns that have long commutes that clog the freeways in the first place!

#LongCommuterHater

Maybe these big companies will start putting office space in the burbs of Kent, Federal Way and Auburn? I'll ask if they could do that instead of renting space in the high rises in downtown Seattle.

Or maybe they'll start building affordable houses, with yards, schools, etc so I have room to raise my family in downtown Seattle so I can walk to work. That would be awesome.

Or maybe I'll go back in time 20 years where I was young and single and I could get an apartment downtown so I could walk to work.

Or maybe my work will give me a huge monster raise so I can buy one of these $6,000,000 dollar condos by my work. That would be cool. Oh wait, no schools in downtown Seattle.

Or maybe my last job(which was closer, 25min commute) wouldn't have outsourced my entire IT department to Bangladore....

Or maybe businesses will finally "get it" and allow people to work from home that easily could if they have a computer and internet access, in other words pretty much everyone that does that type of work. That would cut the number of cars on the road by what, maybe 35% or more? ....Oh wait, the problem with that idea is the it would eliminate about 2/3 of the middle management suck up/really don't do anything but "supervise" the grunts (most of whom need about 1/10th of that "supervision") jobs and we can't have that now can we? I mean what would they talk about in their endless freaking meetings?

all good valid points... but there is some reality to it as well, some people work in an area that is not accomodating to their finances or lifestyle... Like me for instance, i commute because there is simply no residential area within 30 miles of my job site... the closest area to it happens to be riverfront property and expensive condo's.. can't afford it, so i commute along with about 6,000 other workers who work in the same area.. and it sucks...

What the heck? Give us an address of something within .5 miles of where you work, I want to see where in the world there's no residential area within 30 miles. Also, do you define residential as "houses with big yards", or is there more leeway in the definition? (As there should be, IMO.)

Spounge84 wrote:Glad to see Roland still knows whats best for everyone.

Don't be a hater, I was just calling BS on not being able to live near where you work. Anyone can, if they want to live in a condo instead of a house, as an example.

Glad to see you reinterpreting what I said to get offended, though. Makes me feel all tingly inside.

After all, who wouldn't want to relocate multiple times in their lives for no other reason than that they switched jobs? Moving is so much fun, and it's so easy to find a new great place to live... Even better if you can get rid of that stupid old house you bought. Much smarter to waste money on closing costs.

Last edited by Sarlacc83 on Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Spounge84 wrote:Glad to see Roland still knows whats best for everyone.

Don't be a hater, I was just calling BS on not being able to live near where you work. Anyone can, if they want to live in a condo instead of a house, as an example.

Glad to see you reinterpreting what I said to get offended, though. Makes me feel all tingly inside.

I think he made it clear he didn't want to live in a condo. I've got 3 kids, I want a yard. You show me a 2500 sq foot house on a 1 acre lot in Portland within 5 miles of Lloyd Center that costs less than $300,000 and we'll talk.

FWIW, I leave the house at 5:20, get to work before 6, get off at 2:30 and get home by 3:15. One day a week, I work from home. No traffic of note for any of my commute.

Spounge84 wrote:Glad to see Roland still knows whats best for everyone.

Don't be a hater, I was just calling BS on not being able to live near where you work. Anyone can, if they want to live in a condo instead of a house, as an example.

Glad to see you reinterpreting what I said to get offended, though. Makes me feel all tingly inside.

After all, who wouldn't want to relocate multiple times in their lives for no other reason than that they switched jobs? Moving is so much fun, and it's so easy to find a new great place to live... Even better if you can get rid of that stupid old house you bought.

As long as there is room for my computer and my cats, I don't need much. It would be nice if there is a pharmacy nearby that carries my allergy medications.

Some people don't mind a long drive. I'm one of them, as long as traffic isn't bad. I would imagine that living in Portland and working in Kelso the traffic would be much better than if it were the opposite. And Portland-Kelso shouldn't really take an hour. 45 minutes or so.

Zebulon Dak wrote:Some people don't mind a long drive. I'm one of them, as long as traffic isn't bad. I would imagine that living in Portland and working in Kelso the traffic would be much better than if it were the opposite. And Portland-Kelso shouldn't really take an hour. 45 minutes or so.

I'm in sw Portland. So for the time being it would be an hour from door to door

Its all about priorities. There is a give and take to everything and everyone does it differently. A short trip tow work is vitally important for Roland. For others, a home and property is more important than a longer commute. There's no right answer, just personal preference.

In regards to the work from home thing, employers don't trust employees to be as productive when they work from home, too many distractions and there are people that take advantage of it.

Of course, why did the employers hire employees they can't trust to be responsible in the first place? Its not hard to vet that kind of behavior.

RolandDeschain wrote:What the heck? Give us an address of something within .5 miles of where you work, I want to see where in the world there's no residential area within 30 miles. Also, do you define residential as "houses with big yards", or is there more leeway in the definition? (As there should be, IMO.)

I'm assuming Hawker84 works pretty close to where I do, and he'd be correct, there is nowhere (houses, condos, or otherwise) to live within about 30 miles.

Zeb, if the 50-60 minute commute each way is your favorite part of your day every day outside of drinking alcohol, I think you either have a drinking problem, or you really don't like your job. Just a thought.

RolandDeschain wrote:Zeb, if the 50-60 minute commute each way is your favorite part of your day every day outside of drinking alcohol, I think you either have a drinking problem, or you really don't like your job. Just a thought.

Well, while I do go through spells of being sick of my job, and I do thoroughly enjoy whiskey and beer nights, I love reading and I find I get my best reading done on the train. And I love being outside (especially in nice weather) and I sit all day at work, hence the simple joy found in walking.

Oh, and I have made a deal with myself that I will not take business calls or texts during the commute. And I really enjoy that.